Reconstruction, 1865-1877

At the end of this presentation, you will be able to :

• Explain what Reconstruction was.

• Identify key debates in Reconstruction.

• Select the concepts, terms, and people that require further study in your textbook reading.

Reconstruction: Bottom Line

• Reconstruction = rebuilding nation, esp. South, after Civil War

• Moment of hope and opportunity for newly freed slaves

• Fails to create lasting equality

• Transforms nature of government

Reconstruction

• Freedpeople: How will I choose to live my life now that I’m no longer a slave?

• Govt.: How should the country incorporate African Americans into society as free people?

Freedom: Families

• attempts to reunify

• women retreat from labor

1/3 of enslaved children lost one or both parents to sale in Upper South.

Image from: http://college.unc.edu/2012/05/02/helpmefindmypeople/

Freedom: Church and School

• Church: independent black spaces for worship and community

• Education: freedpeople flock to schools

http://www.digitalhistory.uh.edu/exhibits/reconstruction/section2/section2_church.html

Baptismal ceremony at the First African Baptist Church in Richmond. (Harper's Weekly, June 27, 1874)

Political Freedom

• Frederick Douglass: “slavery is not abolished until the black man has the ballot”

• Document: Address of a convention of Negroes held in Alexandria Virginia August 1865

Frederick DouglassImage: Collection of the

New-York Historical Society

Well, the war is over, the rebellion is "put down," and we are declared free! Four fifths of our enemies are paroled or amnestied, and the other fifth are being pardoned, and the President has, in his efforts at the reconstruction of the civil government of the States, late in rebellion, left us entirely at the mercy of these subjugated but unconverted rebels, in everything save the privilege of bringing us, our wives and little ones, to the auction block. . . . We know these men-know them well-and we assure you that, with the majority of them, loyalty is only "lip deep," and that their professions of loyalty are used as a cover to the cherished design of getting restored to their former relations with the Federal Government, and then, by all sorts of "unfriendly legislation," to render the freedom you have given us more intolerable than the slavery they intended for us.

We warn you in time that our only safety is in keeping them under Governors of the military persuasion until you have so amended the Federal Constitution that it will prohibit the States from making any distinction between citizens on account of race or color. In one word, the only salvation for us besides the power of the Government, is in the possession of the ballot. Give us this, and we will protect ourselves. . . . But, is said we are ignorant. Admit it. Yet who denies we know a traitor from a loyal man, a gentleman from a rowdy, a friend from an enemy? The twelve thousand colored votes of the State of New York sent Governor Seymour home and Reuben E. Fenton to Albany. Did not they know who to vote for? . . . All we ask is an equal chance with the white traitors varnished and japanned with the oath of amnesty. Can you deny us this and still keep faith with us? .

Freedom: Land and Labor

• 40 acres and a mule: Sherman’s Field Order 15 - abandoned and confiscated land to freedpeople

• Summer 1865: Andrew Johnson ordered land returned to former owners

• Document: Committee of Freedmen on Edisto Island, South Carolina

Source: http://www.thepresidency.org

• Govt.: How should the country incorporate African Americans into society as free people? (Economically and politically) - Freedmen’s Bureau.

Freedmen’s Bureau

The Freedmen's Bureau / Drawn by A.R. Waud.Harper's weekly, 1868 July 25, p. 473. Accessed via commons.wikimedia.org

Freedmen’s Bureau

• Has a huge job, with few resources, but:

• Start 3,000 schools (150,000 students!)

• Run hospitals; provide medical care

Freedmen’s SchoolSource: http://georgiainfo.galileo.usg.edu/gastudiesimages/

• Govt.: How should the country incorporate African Americans into society as free people? (Economically and politically)

• The Politics of Reconstruction - tensions between DC and the South

• Johnson’s plan:

• pardon Southerners and give them back their land

• let Southern states decide whether blacks get the vote

• richest Southerners and important Confederates need to apply for presidential pardon

Johnson’s Answer: Presidential

Reconstruction

Image source: http://whitehouse.gov

South under Presidential Reconstruction

• All-white governments quickly reformed

• Black Codes passed in state governments

Image source: http://highered.mcgraw-hill.com/sites/0072900423/student_view0/chapter15/image_quiz.html

Sec. 6....All contracts for labor made with freedmen, free negroes, and mulattoes for a longer period than one month shall be in writing, and in duplicate, attested and read to said freedman, free negro, or mulatto by a beat, city or county officer, or two disinterested white persons of the county in which the labor is to be performed, of which each party shall have one; and said contracts shall be taken and held as entire contracts, and if the laborer shall quit the service of the employer before the expiration of his term of service, without good cause, he shall forfeit his wages for that year up to the time of quitting.

Sec. 7....Every civil officer shall, and every person may, arrest and carry back to his or her legal employer any freedman, free negro, or mulatto who shall have quit the service of his or her employer before the expiration of his or her term of service without good cause; and said officer and person shall be entitled to receive for arresting and carrying back every deserting employe aforesaid the sum of five dollars, and ten cents per mile from the place of arrest to the place of delivery; and the same shall be paid by the employer, and held as a set-off for so much against the wages of said deserting employee....

Thaddeus Stevens, PA

Charles Sumner, MA

Radical Republicans

• Wanted to:

• get rid of all-white “rebel” governments in the South

• guarantee black men the right to vote

Stage is set for a showdown.

vs.

Thaddeus Stevens, PA

Charles Sumner, MA

President Johnson.

Radical Republicans.

Round 1: Moderates lead

• Two moderate bills, 1866:

• re: Freedmen’s Bureau

• Civil Rights Bill

Basic Text: Civil Rights Act of 1866 All persons within the jurisdiction of the United States shall have the same right in every state and territory to make and enforce contracts, to sue, be parties, give evidence, and to the full and equal benefit of all laws and proceedings for the security of persons and property as is enjoyed by white citizens, and shall be subject to like punishment, pains, penalties, taxes, licenses, and exactions of every kind, and none other, any law, statute, ordinance, regulation, or custom to the contrary notwithstanding.

Any person who, under color of any law, statute, ordinance, regulation, or custom, shall subject, or cause to be subjected, any inhabitant of any state or territory to the deprivation of any rights secured or protected by the preceding section, or to different punishment, pains, or penalties, on account of such person being an alien, or by reason of his color or race, than is prescribed for the punishment of citizens, shall be deemed guilty of a misdemeanor [and subject to fine and imprisonment as specified in the act].

Source: http://www.stetson.edu/law/faculty/bickel/civilrights/basic-text-of-civil-rights-acts-of-1866-and-1875.php

Round 2: Johnson’s response

• Surprise! Johnson vetoes both bills, because:

• Power in hands of federal government (instead of states)

• Black people don’t deserve citizenship

Cartoon, Thomas Nast for Harper’s Weekly

• Title: Andrew Johnson's reconstruction and how it works / Th. Nast.

• Creator(s): Nast, Thomas, 1840-1902, artist

• Date Created/Published: 1866 September 1.

• Medium: 1 print : wood engraving.

• Published in Harper's weekly, v. 10, no. 505, 1866 September 1, pp. 552-553.

Round 3: Congressional Reconstruction

• Congress overrides Johnson’s veto of Civil Rights Bill

• 14th Amendment: makes citizenship for those born in the U.S.; empowers federal government to protect citizens

• Important: writes principle of equality before the law regardless of race into Constitution (cf. 456)

Image source: http://14thamendment.harpweek.com/

default.asp

AMENDMENT XIV Section 1.All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside. No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws. Section 2.Representatives shall be apportioned among the several States according to their respective numbers, counting the whole number of persons in each State, excluding Indians not taxed. But when the right to vote at any election for the choice of electors for President and Vice-President of the United States, Representatives in Congress, the Executive and Judicial officers of a State, or the members of the Legislature thereof, is denied to any of the male inhabitants of such State, being twenty-one years of age, and citizens of the United States, or in any way abridged, except for participation in rebellion, or other crime, the basis of representation therein shall be reduced in the proportion which the number of such male citizens shall bear to the whole number of male citizens twenty-one years of age in such State.

Round 4: 1866 Elections

The Victors: Radical Reconstruction, 1867-1877

• 1867: Tenure of Office Act leads to Johnson’s impeachment

• Not removed from office, but de-fanged

• Title: The situation • Date Created/Published: 1868. • Medium: 1 print : wood engraving. • Summary: Print shows Ulysses Grant and Edwin Stanton near cannon labeled "Congress" aimed at Lorenzo Thomas and President Johnson. • Accessed via loc.gov

“Constitutional Revolution”

• Fifteenth Amendment: prohibited government from denying right to vote because of race (ratified 1870)

• Two new ideas in constitution:

• National government that can act in people’s lives to support freedom

• Citizens with equal rights before the law

Impact of Radical Reconstruction in the South

• Republicans in South reform government, advance cause of equal rights:

• Black Republicans

• White: Scalawags and carpetbaggers

Black Officeholders• Black voters take power, but

highest offices almost entirely in white hands

• Still, 2,000 African Americans held public office during Reconstruction:

• 14 to the U.S. House; 2 to the U.S. Senate

• Majority in SC legislature, where blacks made up 60% of population

Blanche Kelso Bruce by Simmie Lee Knox; http://www.senate.gov/artandhistory/art/common/image/Painting_32_00039.htm

Hiram Revels (R-MS); http://www.senate.gov/artandhistory/history/common/image/HiramRevels.htm

Black Senators during Reconstruction

Hiram Revels (R-MS)Served 1870-1871

Blanche K. Bruce (R-MS)Served 1874-1881

Impact of Radical Reconstruction in the South

• Accomplishments:

• public schools; civil rights legislation; support for sharecroppers

• biracial government, planters sidelined from power

• Challenges:

• weak southern economy

• poverty of most African Americans

Overthrow of Radical Reconstruction, Pt. 1

• Planters, merchants, and Democratic politicians opposed Reconstruction governments

• Violence: Founding of the KKK 1866

Overthrow of Radical Reconstruction, Pt. 2

• Support in North fades for Reconstruction

• Supreme Court undermines

• Violence at the polls

Conclusion• South devastated after Civil War

• Freed slaves fought to make their lives truly free after slavery

• Struggle in politics led to some good: Constitutional reform for civil rights; brief flowering of black political rights

• But Southern racism, northern indifference, and political wrangling led to the loss of many of the gains Reconstruction promised